Tourism and Society: An In-depth Analysis of Impacts and Relationships

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the tourism industry and its intricate relationship with society, utilizing various sociological theories, practices, and principles. It delves into the participation, equality, and accessibility of tourists within the industry, discussing strategies impleme...Read More

Tourism and Society

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is an act of travelling which is accomplished for either business or pleasure. In
other words, tourism is the social, cultural and economic phenomenon of movement of
individuals from one destination to another. In other words, tourism is travel for business or
pleasure. It is also defined as the business of attracting and entertaining people from all aorund
the world. Tourism is an important aspect for the economy of the country so as to generate jobs,
revenue and wealth. The expansion of tourism industry provides a series of economic and social
benefits to facets of contemporary societies (Abukhalifeh and Segura, 2022). The impact of
tourism is widely felt on the society, environment and economy of a country as it enhances the
quality of life of individuals employed in the tourism industry. The tourism industry is mostly
male dominated due to which women are less likely to enjoy their freedom during travelling and
exploring. These aspects of gender bias bring about a negative impact on the society. Sociology
is defined as the study of changes and causes associated with human behaviour. The study of
processes that aid in defining roles, building motivations of tourists is termed as sociology of
tourism. There are various changes that should be implemented in the tourism industry to make
the experiences of tourists more mesmerising and advanced. Local governmental bodies of
respective countries and states should make necessary development to enhance the experiences
of tourists. The travel industry should implement necessary measures and precautions in order to
combat fear generated due occurrence of the pandemic Corbisiero and La Rocca, 2020). The
topic of this essay Tourism and Society. This report highlights the relationship between tourism
and society. The discussion also revolves around the impact of tourism and society on one
another.
MAIN BODY
The tourism industry is widely known for providing excellent quality of travelling
experience to people from different countries along with local food and transportation. There are
three categories in tourism, namely, Domestic, Inbound and Outbound (Wood, 2018). The
growth of tourism industry is an indicator of cultural prevalence and presence all around the
world. The United Kingdom is considered a regional destination for sporting and businesses etc.
The United Kingdom is well known for providing high quality facilities to its tourists. With
respect to the industrial revolution, the evolution of tourism industry occurred in the 17th century

and this particular sector has contributed well to the economy of the country to help overcomes
challenges and issues. The problems faced by the tourism industry of the United Kingdom lead
to a decline in the position and reputation of the country on a global level. Therefore, in order to
overcomes these challenges it was important for United Kingdom to step up their game in the
tourism sector. This enabled the country to gain competitive edge over on an international level.
The relationship between tourism and society can be highlighted with the help of various models
such as Tourism Life Cycle, Leipers Tourism System model along with push/pull influencers
(Sharpley and Harrison, 2019). The model described in this report is the Tourism Life Cycle
model. This model was proposed by Butler in the 1980 and is used for the evaluation of any
particular tourism destination. This model consists of six stages, namely, Exploration,
Involvement, Development, Conclusion, Stagnation and Rejuvenation. The first stage is
characterized by introducing a particular number of visitors where tourist attractions are enjoyed
by the local tourists with no extra charges (Tully and Carr, 2020). The country earns no
economic benefit through this stage. The next stage, Involvement includes increasing the number
of visitors in a tourist attraction and offering services to the tourists such accommodation, food
and transport etc. This allows the industry to generate a small amount of income by providing
benefits at a local level through these facilities. This stages helps in generation of some profit to
the society. This stage is followed by Development, wherein the staged area become a tourist
attraction through promotion and advertising (Cohen and Spector, 2019). This allows the local
public to gain opportunities for financial profit. The staged area gains international recognition
after which the number of visitors or tourists are higher than local public. During this stage, the
tourism industry dominates the local economy. The next step in this model is Stagnation, where a
functional tourist spot faces a no growth irrespective of continuous promotion and advertising.
The growth aspect is haltered which causes a negative impact on the economy of the country and
respective nation. The last stage of this model is the Decline stage, which is characterized
disappearing of tourists or visitors from the tourist attraction. During this stage, there is a high
likelihood of local residents visiting the spot due to a significant decline in the prices of facilities.
The impact of tourism is widely observed in a layered manner, including both the
positive and negative aspects along with the help of PESTLE analysis. There are various factors
which are used to analyse this framework. These factors included in PESTLE analysis are
Political, Social, Economic, Technological, Environmental and Legal. Political factors describe

the driving factor action policies implemented by the government (Tizchang and Imanizadeh,
2022). This might includes various taxation policies along with disputes of the trade and fiscal
policies etc. the impact of corruption is highlighted as it allows the government to assess the
negative impact of corruption on the tourism industry. The onset of corruption leads to an
increase in the prices of products and services offered in the name of tourism. This causes a low
profits to the economy of the nation. Economic factors are factors related to finance and
economy. These aspects may include fluctuations in inflation, employment and exchange rates.
The tourism industry helps the economy to develop itself through generation of profits in
exchange for services. The economic growth is enhanced through increased foreign exchange
reserve as it will boost the GDP of the UK (Andrade, 2022). Social factors are referred to as
those factors which consist of societal beliefs such as norms and values of local residents. In
recent times, the taste and preferences of people changes very frequently, therefore; it becomes
very difficult to retain rate of tourism in the UK. Technological advancements in the tourism
sector plays a crucial role in increasing the rate of tourism in the country. Access to technology
will help promotion of local tourist areas all around the world. These places can be marketing
through various marketing channels such as television, social media sites and newspapers.
Environmental factors such as climate change, carbon footprint and the quality of air and water
play an important role in the tourism industry. This is because tourists will be attracted to clean,
hygienic places rather than polluted areas (Domi, Keco, Capelleras and Mehmeti, 2019). The
environmental factors, sometimes, also acts a negative influence on the tourism industry due to
Seasonality. Favourable seasons bring about a lot of profits as the number of tourists visiting the
country are at its peak. Legal factors include the influence of law and legislations on the
operations of the tourism industry. Legal factors involve licencing, regulation of accommodation
industry, intellectual property rights, employment laws and regulations related to health and
safety of the tourists. The legal bodies are bound to implement these laws and legislations for
making tourism easily assessable and hassle free for the tourists (Hillman and Radel, 2018).
Bank giving out tourist loans at both, local and international levels, are regulated by these legal
bodies appointed by the government.
The impact of tourism can be widely felt in the United Kingdom, considering positive
and negative aspects of the tourism industry. Job and employment opportunities were generated
for students involved in the promotion of tourism. This has caused a direct impact on the

economy of the country as taxes are paid to the country along with a boost in the GDP. Increased
GDP has caused sustainability in the country due to restriction in unemployment (Mura and
Ključnikov, 2018). However, the prevalence of issues such as inequality of work and wage gaps
is very high. The operations of tourism industry should be designed to work in an ethical manner
in order to enhance sustainable growth. There are various types of tourist topologies such as
Smith Tourist typology, Cohen Tourist Typology, Amex Tourist typology and Plog's Tourist
typology. There is description about Cohen Tourist typology, which was introduced by Cohen in
1979. According to Cohen, there are four different types of tourist categories, Organised mass
tourist, Individual mass tourist, Explorer and Drifter. Organised tourists depend packaged
holidays organised by holiday planners. These type of tourists prefer Western style of
accommodation. However, on the other hand, individual mass tourists prefer to travel alone and
make effective use of the facilities provided by the institutions in tourism industry (Tribe, 2018).
These types of tourists prefer centralisation in booking and scheduling of flights. Tourists who
prefer comfort along with modern amenities are referred to as Explorers. These individuals are
active participants as they engage themselves in tourist activities. Those tourists that prefer
innovation over anything are called as Drifters as they completely immense themselves in local
activities. The time period of their stay is longer as they prefer to absorb the culture of the
country. The relationship between culture and tourism is neutral which provides a competitive
advantage to the destination of choice along with chaos and distinctiveness. There is a high
likelihood of interaction of people with cultural differences as people belong with different
religion, culture, beliefs and values (Manthiou, Klaus, Kuppelwieser and Reeves, 2021).
However, these situations can be avoided by appropriate behaviours of tourists such as
respecting the culture and values of the destination chosen by them to visit. Narrow-mindedness
leads to cultural conflicts and cases of tourist violence. Therefore, it is important to address this
important aspect of respecting each other's beliefs and differences.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that the above essay gave an overview of the
tourism industry along with the relationship between tourism and society which the help of
different sociological theories, practices and principles etc. The essay also gave an insight about
the participation, equality and accessibility of tourists in the tourism industry. A wide variety of
strategies were discussed that were implemented by governmental and local bodies in resolve the

problems in the tourism industry. Tourism plays an important role in economic growth of any
country and it is crucial to address the issues associated with it. The relationship between tourism
and society was highlighted with the help of Tourism life cycle model. PESTLE analysis was
performed in order to identify the positive and negative impact of tourism on the society.
Positive factors such as seasonal tourism helps the industry grow. Whereas, on the other hand,
negative factors such as government corruption as well as tourist violence adversely impact the
industry. The changing tastes and preferences of tourists has the potential to negatively affect the
industry as due to its slow moving pace, it is very difficult to maintain the standards and desires
of all the tourists. There are chances of non-compliance with the legal aspect of the country
which can deplete the tourism industry. Tourist typologies such as demanding better facilities,
services and a safe environment are sometimes not fulfilled by the provider or the government.
The discussion also revolved around the cultural aspect of tourism and other factors such as
poverty and inequality. The Tourism industry in the United Kingdom is planning to execute
sustainable tourism to ensure that tourists are not causing harm to the country by polluting it.
Various restrictions have been imposed to prevent this practice and protecting the environment
of respective country.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abukhalifeh, A.N. and Segura, S.S., 2022. Sociology of Tourism. In Encyclopedia of Tourism
Management and Marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wood, R.E., 2018. Tourism, culture and the sociology of development. In Tourism in South-East
Asia (pp. 48-70). Routledge.
Sharpley, R. and Harrison, D. eds., 2019. A research agenda for tourism and development.
Cohen, E. and Spector, S. eds., 2019. Space tourism: The elusive dream. Emerald Group
Publishing.
Tizchang, M. and Imanizadeh, A., 2022. Sociology Paradigms. In Encyclopedia of Tourism
Management and Marketing (pp. 181-185). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Andrade, P., 2022. Which Sociology of Urban Tourism in the Day After Viral Society?: For an
Intercultural, Intermediary, and Inter-Methodological Hybrid and Open Research.
In Handbook of Research on Urban Tourism, Viral Society, and the Impact of the COVID-
19 Pandemic (pp. 1-40). IGI Global.
Hillman, W. and Radel, K. eds., 2018. Qualitative methods in tourism research: theory and
practice. Channel View Publications.
Mura, L. and Ključnikov, A., 2018. Small businesses in rural tourism and agro tourism: Study
from Slovakia. Economics & Sociology, 11(3), pp.286-300.
Tribe, J., 2018. Creating and curating tourism knowledge. Annals of Tourism Research, 73,
pp.14-25.
Manthiou, A., Klaus, P., Kuppelwieser, V.G. and Reeves, W., 2021. Man vs machine: examining
the three themes of service robotics in tourism and hospitality. Electronic Markets, 31(3),
pp.511-527.
Domi, S., Keco, R., Capelleras, J.L. and Mehmeti, G., 2019. Effects of innovativeness and
innovation behavior on tourism SMEs performance: The case of Albania. Economics &
sociology, 12(3), pp.67-85.
Tully, P.A. and Carr, N., 2020. The oppression of donkeys in seaside tourism. International
Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 3(1), pp.53-70.
Corbisiero, F. and La Rocca, R.A., 2020. Tourism on demand. New form of urban and social
demand of use after the pandemic event. TeMA-Journal of Land Use, Mobility and
Environment, pp.91-104.